New York: A Great Sports Town Once Again

An improbable Super Bowl victory, a resurgent basketball team led by a previously unknown Asian-American Harvard grad, a brewing quarterback war between a playboy and an evangelist and another likely Yankee championship run.

I haven't been this excited to be a New York sports fan since 1986 (or is that 1973? Or 1969?).

This city is buzzing again because we have teams in multiple sports capable of being champions in 2012.

The Giants started off the year magically, with their electrifying run to the Super Bowl which climaxed in Eli Manning's crashing the New England Patriots Super Bowl party. It was a great January to be a New York football fan.

Now, the Knicks finally have a team on the floor each night worthy of the Madison Square Garden hype (if not the wildly inflated prices). Not since the curse of the Patrick Ewing trade more than a decade ago has being a Knicks fan been so much fun. The Linsanity weeks, the Coach Mike 2.0 streak, the joy on the faces of Amare and Melo -- it reminds one of the Pat Riley days when the fearsome Knicks were a force in the NBA. They may not go very deep in the playoffs this year, but certain nights (like the pounding of the Philadelphia 76ers on the road this week) have given Knicks fans hope that the upcoming 2012 playoffs could become something special.

In baseball, the Yankees juggernaut just welcomed back one of the most clutch pitchers in playoff history: Andy Pettite. Now, three of the four championship stars from the last 15 years have been reunited (Jeter, Rivera and Pettite) and it looks like this team should have enough gas left in the tank to give these three Yankee stalwarts one more ring for their crowded hands.

The Mets, well, they aren't short of drama...off the field. The saga of the Wilpons and their Madoff ties continues to be the story that won't go away. Countless Mets fans have been Madoff's unwitting victims, but with Johan Santana back in the rotation and the potential of comeback years from David Wright and Jason Bay, Citifield on a warm summer day could still be worth the commute.

In hockey, the Rangers were the hottest team in the NHL until recently, and for those still paying attention to the ice now that spring has sprung, the Rangers should be a fun ride in the playoff season ahead.

We also have an old-fashioned football quarterback rivalry brewing on the New York Jets: playboy Mark Sanchez, who hasn't quite progressed beyond his first two breakout seasons, and evangelist Tim Tebow, whose first-season heroics were not enough in the Mile-High City to ward off a Peyton Manning takeover. Will Coach Rex Ryan and his new offensive coordinator Tony Sparano be able to make Sanchez-Tebow the new Griese-Morrall or Sims-Hostetler combo and propel the Jets to the Super Bowl?

Well, that's a story for 2013. In the meantime, let's bask in the glow of New York's 2012 sports exploits a bit longer and see if we can hoist another championship banner at the Garden or Yankee Stadium this Summer or Fall.

New York loves a winning team and we now have a bunch that may make the quotidian annoyances of daily life much more bearable.

Tom Allon, a Liberal-backed and Democratic mayoral candidate in 2013, is a lifelong New York sports fan and started his journalism career as a clerk in the sports department of The New York Times.